So I attempted to edit it, but instead of getting the edit window, I got an edit approval popup showing me that another editor has proposed a similar change to the one I was going to make. So I approved the edit. But the approval didn't go through: it needs more than one vote.

So if there had been no proposed edit, I could just have edited the question and fixed the problem. But because another editor has proposed an edit, I cannot now make this change. In effect, the proposed edit blocks all edits until the approval has gone through or not. It would be nice if this didn't happen.

I think the number of times this has been reported is evidence that the interface is not well designed for new users. A user in my situation is focused on the task of Editing the question/answer but what the suggested edit interface offers is the facility to Improve the suggestion. These are not the same thing at all.

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3

You can always click "Improve". There was a "Reject and Improve" proposal, but I guess that wouldn't work because we need two users to reject an edit as well, so it would still sit in queue.
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Wesley MurchJul 18 '11 at 21:39

I totally missed the option to do that! So consider my feature request to be to improve the approval interface.
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Gareth ReesJul 18 '11 at 21:55

Hmmm, good question. The edit in question has been approved now, so I can't go back and look at the panel to see why I missed this feature. Where should I look to see an example?
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Gareth ReesJul 18 '11 at 22:08

@Gareth It looks like this (actually, now that you're 10k you can just go here)
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Michael MrozekJul 19 '11 at 0:22

@Michael: I guess I saw the "Improve" button but didn't understand what it meant. I didn't want to Improve the suggested edit; I wanted to Edit the question.
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Gareth ReesJul 19 '11 at 10:46

@Cody: Those duplicates suggest that this is a general difficulty with this dialog.
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Gareth ReesJul 19 '11 at 10:46

Yes, I agree. I for one hate it. I have full edit privileges; if I want to make an edit, I should be able to do that. I especially hate having to wait for someone else's poor, half-assed edit to be approved/rejected by at least 1 more user before I can fix the glaring problems with the post. I've taken to only using the "Improve" button 90% of the time, which I don't really feel is appropriate, since knowing it is actually the "Approve & Improve" button, and I don't think these people deserve any rep points for their less-than-tepid edits. No traction on fixing it so far, though.
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Cody GrayJul 19 '11 at 10:49